puzzling puzzle

hi there. im making a columns type game and there are four different colors.

i have a 10 by 10 grid that i store in an array called

dim grid(9,9)

i assign a value to each place on the grid depending on the color: 1=blue 2=yellow 3=red 4=green

now i need to check if 4 or more of the same color are adjacent then i want to assign their positions on the grid to 0.

ive tried different ways (using a recursive function) but it doesnt seem to work!

does anyone have any tips or some code to share?

thanx in advance!

You want to assign their positions to zero, or their colour values?

oh sorry yeah, the color value in the grid array to 0

Something like this might work. Typed straight into replybox (untested).

For Row = 0 to 9
  For Col = 0 to 6
    c = grid(row,col)
    If (grid(row,col+1) = c) And (grid(row,col+2) = c) And (grid(row,col+3) = c)
      DeleteRow(row,col,c)
      col = 7
    EndIf
  Next
Next

Function DeleteRow(row,col,c)
  For N = col to 9
    If grid(row,n) = c
      grid(row,n) = 0
    Else
      N = 10
    Endif
  Next
  ;If the blocks above this row will fall to fill the empty spaces, add that code here.
End Function

thank GDK but this only takes the case of the block being in a row, the block could be in the form of a square, or an L shape or a verical bar of four and so on...

Treat adjacent similarly colored cells as a path and walk it recursively, trying each direction in turn. Keep a tally as you walk and make any necessary determinations when the call chain is complete.

I'd recommend, however, using an array of Types and not just a simple integer array. This way you can track housekeeping information as you walk the grid.

ok thanx xacto, good to know i was on the right track, what do u mean though about tracking housekeeping info?